


About To Arrive

by MagpieMorality



Series: Punches & Poodle Skirts [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1950s, Alternate Universe - High School, Bullying, F/F, Fem!Sides, Genderbend, Hispanic Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Multi, Other, Period Typical Attitudes, Pre-Relationship, Prologue, Relationships are not exhaustive for the whole series, That's a tag? Awesome!, Unsympathetic Deceit Sanders, for now, implied abusive relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:22:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22800043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagpieMorality/pseuds/MagpieMorality
Summary: Warnings: mentions of racist bullying, implied abusive relationship.This is a repost of a chapter from the 12 Days of Sidesmas challenge, to give it its own series!
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders
Series: Punches & Poodle Skirts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1639096
Kudos: 15





	About To Arrive

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: mentions of racist bullying, implied abusive relationship.
> 
> This is a repost of a chapter from the 12 Days of Sidesmas challenge, to give it its own series!

Poodle skirts and patent shoes filled the school gym, all decked out in the finest cheesy Christmas decor imaginable. The school Christmas dance, rather a tradition by now despite it's unpopularity sitting only a few weeks after homecoming; was in full swing. Over the sounds of the band and the emcee calling the dances, there was giggling and chatter from every corner, generated by just over a hundred teenage voices all overexcited by the prospect of romance and potentially spiked punch. 

Some were more excited than others, and Virginia Sanders was on the lower end of the spectrum. Her mouth was set firmly in a distasteful pout, chin in her hand as she slouched on the bleachers with her elbow digging a dull ache in her knee and her second-hand skirt rumpling underneath her. It wasn't exactly her idea of good festive fun. Too many hormones and loud noises and _people_. Worse- _teenagers_ , and yeah so what she thought it with such disgust when she was one herself? It wasn't like she was _happy_ about it. 

If only the kids at her new school weren't like the kids at every other dang high school she'd been to in the last two years (a total of five, but one of them hardly counted as it had technically been summer break all but one week they'd been in town). Then at least she might not be sitting there alone, as usual, wishing she was at home or sneaking out to play baseball with her recently inaugurated best ( _only_ ) friend Patty. Patty had a wicked arm- Virginia was sure she could beat anyone on the team with her fastball, not that anyone would care to discover it.

But Patty was, much to Virginia's dismay, one of the more enthusiastic in their year about things like Christmas dances and new outfits. She was even on the planning committees and a cheerleader to boot. But she did look cute as a button, done up in her powder blue skirt with the little white flowers, a matching ornament in her perfectly pinned up silky blonde curls. Oh how they gently caressed her face when she twisted side to side to the music and how her smile lit up the room when she grinned and waved over at Virginia... 

Virginia sat up sharply with a faint blush, lifting her hand in brief reply and looking away quickly, smoothing down her skirts. She missed the slight fall of Patty's expression, but the other girl stayed on the dance floor when the rest of her group squealed at the start of a new song and dragged her back into the fray.

On the opposite side of the room a different girl was stood watching the mass of bodies out in the centre of the room with considerably less disgust and considerably more longing. She tossed her dark head, rubbing the corsage on her wrist that had no partner, and sighed deeply as she resisted the urge to sway to the music. Rosanna Castillo did not have friends like Patty did, to dance and gasp and laugh with. Rosanna Castillo had classmates, who would mock her accent when it came out and make snide and unsubtle remarks about _how good she must be at laundry_ , and _whether she was available to cook dinner, for a small fee of course_... 

Rosanna Castillo wished she could go out there and dance and show them all what she was _really_ good at, but she knew she would never dare. There was only half a year left before she would be out of town and off to make her name in show business, after all. And she was a good enough actor to last that long at least. 

She cast her eyes down, catching sight of a young couple hurrying away from the dance floor; the boyfriend chasing after his clearly distressed girlfriend. She tried not to eavesdrop as they came to a stop near the wall she was hovering by, the boy grabbing his girlfriend's arm and yanking her around to face him as he hissed at her from up close. Her glasses slipped down her nose and she flinched when he pushed them back up her nose. Rosanna's hackles raised instinctively and she focused harder on what was going on. 

" _Sweetie_ , you know you have to stay out and dance with me or it'll look awful for both of us! You can't just _leave._ " 

"I won't stand there and smile while your stupid friends say those horrible things it's just not fair, Dee!" Dee's smile was pained in the coloured lights, pasted on for show, and his grip didn't shift as the girl pushed at his hand, trying to free herself. "I'm going home, let go of me! You _know_ I didn't want to come anyway-"

"Don't be ridiculous honey you're embarrassing yourself. Lori stop it I'm not gonna let go. Lori! _Loren-Ann stop making a fuss_!" He tugged her a little closer but she'd apparently reached her limit, and before Rosanna could move to intervene Loren-Ann had stomped hard on her boyfriend's foot and followed up with a knee to his stomach as he doubled over, leaving him gasping and clutching at the wall to stay upright as she stormed off. 

Rosanna was impressed beyond belief. She darted after her new heroine as the girl in question shoved through the doors and out into the night, intending to make sure she was okay. 

Back on the other side of the gym Virginia was trying _not_ to watch as the music slowed down and Patty moved smoothly into the arms of a boy, it looked like the large Tight End on the football team, Norm or Nick or something equally generic. Virginia spitefully thought to herself that his end probably wasn't even that tight, and immediately felt bad about the nastiness. It was unbecoming of a lady, her mother would have said, and despite herself Virginia couldn't quite shake the drilled-in response of nauseous guilt at even the imagined sound of her mother's shrill voice, always picking picking picking at Virginia no matter what she did- 

She stopped her line of thinking to take a few deep breaths, standing up and descending the bleachers carefully, unaccustomed to the kitten heels she was wearing. Unaccustomed to all the frippery and finery and the hot sting of something she wasn't sure about in her chest (it ached like jealousy, but she had to deny that or else she'd have to start thinking about _why_ and jealous of _what_ or worse- _who_ ) and gosh dang it she needed to not be here anymore. 

The door beckoned and the cool air was delightful on Virginia's skin as she burst out of the gym and made for the parking lot, unaware that she was about to stumble over two other early escapees, sharing the tentative beginning of a conversation that was destined to lead to a surprising new friendship. Unaware that Patty would clock her absence once the dance was over and Nate had let her slip away from his sweaty hands and overwhelming cologne to go 'to the bathroom', whereupon she would _actually_ have to go to the bathroom to take a few moments to herself as she let the disappointment pass. And unaware that- contrary to expectation- her future held a whole lot of new and exciting things to come before the year was out... 

For now she was just thinking about how much better life would be when she got into bed. 


End file.
